The Chill
by MrMarcz
Summary: Connor Franks, he, like most 4th generation Vault 97 dwellers, was adopted from the wasteland that is The Chill, but when the Vault's heater system breaks, he must return to the world he hates so much, and confront the last man he want's to meet, Rated T for possible violence along with some possible curses, and this is also my first story, quality may be lacking
1. The Prologue

War, war never changes. The world was ravaged, by the Great War of 2077, nothing but eternal hell was left, but that was not the worst. As bad as radiation, mutants, and contaminated water is, man is always the most dangerous kind, even if it's to its own kind.

One of these dangers that humanity poses to itself can be noted by the word greed. Even after the world is blown to hell, the race that is mankind seemingly has a tremendous amount of love for their ego. This is most seen in a place that was once called Alaska, of the Northwest-Commonwealth, composed of Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and of course, the before mentioned Alaska. But these names doesn't matter anymore, north and south California is united under the Flag of the Two-Headed Bear, along with Oregon, and Idaho but, ever since the news of the Alaskan frontlines being liberated, nothing has been heard from it. This, Alaska as they called, is now know only as, The Chill, a place of nuclear hell, the Chinese made sure that, if America was to rise, it would never reclaim the land in which hundreds of men died in, and it's precious oil, or what remains of it. At the night of the great war, astoundingly 106 warheads targeted Alaska, 13 of which was diverted to detonate in the higher atmosphere by the same technology that Robert House used to save Las Vegas, another 27 was shot down by supersonic jet's the USAF had scrambled and shot down exactly 15 minutes and another 9 was knocked off course by the missile defense systems, causing a still depressing 57 warheads to detonate in Alaska.

The some fortunate, wealthy people managed to save themselves in the only Vault to be built in all of Alaska, Vault 97, which conveniently finished its construction at October 18, 5 days from the Great War. The Chill, a name very little knows, and yet it will be the most known name, from the core region, to the Commonwealth, even to barbaric city of Flagstaff, Arizona. A land, in which a hero will emerge, in this Vault of fortunate, yet unfortunate survivors, a man who will conquer the ravages of The Chill, a hell hole, riddled with snow blizzards, hail storms, radiation storms, and the seldom, dormant American warheads to be accidentally detonated.

This man, to the people of Vault 97, he is known as Connor Franks, 28 years old by the year 2287, the year he left the vault, to find a heater system that will keep his vault from freezing, to keep the only habitable place in the entire Chill. Little does anyone know, this young man, unlike most of the 4th generation Vault 97 dweller's, has a secret of his own.


	2. Far from Comfort

In vault 97, there now lives 4 generations, 3 of which were of the original inhabitants, and last one mostly composed of refugees. One of these refugees is named Connor Franks, roughly 6 foot 5, a well built body, and a look so cold it could petrify a super mutant in its place. This man is no ordinary Vault 97 dweller though; oblivious to the other's he has more survival skills than anyone in The Chill, thought to him by the man he hates so much, so much hatred and rage could melt the entire North Pole.

"Do I have to go?" Connor asks, his face was stoic and cold, but somehow with a hint of dread was in his voice "Yes Connor, only you can, sadly. The heater systems are breaking, we have about 7 months until it breaks, and another 2 months until this vault freezes itself and kills all of us" the overseer was had a look of guilt in his face, and it was pretty obvious why "here, it's all I can give you, and I'm afraid I can't supply anything else, we will need the supplies if we are going to survive this, crisis" the overseer hands Connor a bag of supplies, a 10mm pistol and hunting rifle along with a sufficient amount of ammo, a winter camo combat vest, and a matching army winter jacket. The sirens ring, a clear signal that the Vault door was opening. Slowly, with the loud hum of a v8 engine moving the large gear shaped door, and on that door, was emblazoned 97, its jet black spray paint fading over time, and some graffiti left by a man who came too late to enter the vault.

As Connor walk out of the vault he opened the automated hydraulic door that was conveniently concealed by a book shelf. The door rattled and screeched as its 200 year old hinges and hydraulics move for the first time for 15 years, it was also 15 years ago that Connor had passed through this door and entered the Vault, and lived a peaceful life. Well it was peaceful until the heater systems started breaking and he was ordered by the overseer to search for a replacement. It was cold, the camo vest and the jacket that he received from the Overseer was keeping him warm, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough, even the chilling chill of The Chill was getting Connor cold, his teeth was chattering, and he was having trouble seeing more than 50 feet ahead of him. As he walked south, away from the old Anchorage City Center Library to the Military Memorial Museum directly south of it, there he found shelter, and being a museum dedicated to soldiers, he also managed to recover some weapons, an old combat knife which had the righting Grimm carved at its handle, said to have been used by a Private A. Gilbert, who fended off 15 Chinese soldiers in the heat of battle, a military service rifle, specially chambered for .308 rounds, with a clip capacity of 20 and a rate of fire of 100 rounds per minute, and plentiful ammo to fill his guns.

The following night, Connor took refuge in an (obviously) abandoned motel, a couple of miles down the street. The bed wasn't the best, but should suffice. As he was sleeping in the middle of the night, Connor was awakened by the sound of footsteps, he dropped into the ground immediately, even though he was still groggy over the fact that he had barely slept for an hour of sleep. As he listened in on the sound of the footsteps, he realized something, the irregular sound of the footsteps. He came to the conclusion that there were multiple people down the abandoned hallway. He moved his hand towards Grimm, the knife he picked up at the Museum and as the footsteps got finally got in front of the door which he was waiting beside. He could hear whatever was outside opening and closing doors, it was only a matter of time until they, or whatever was there got to his door. Half a minute of waiting later a raider, clad in salvaged sport equipments, kicked the door down, but was immediately took down by Connor, who, after the door burst open slit the raider's throat and cut of the raider's head in the process. The other 2 raiders saw their dead comrade, and started firing 5.56 rounds through the hallway, they firing was chaotic, and uncalculated, literally meaning that the raiders won't hit anything somewhat over than 60 feet away, which was lucky, because Connor was about 80 feet from the raiders, he took out the .308 assault rifle and emerged into the hallway, and with two successful bursts from the assault rifle, the raiders dropped dead, each with holes on their head and torso.

The next morning Connor left the motel at first light, and went south west, towards the Anchorage international airport. As he was trekking the desolate landscape of Anchorage, he say a bright red flash in the distance, he decided to head towards the direction, maybe there were people there, people that were sane at least. After reaching his destination he saw ash, in a pile that somewhat shaped the silhouette of a man, as he was investigating, he heard a mechanical whine, the sound of an energy weapon charging, in quick reflex, Connor grabbed Grimm and swung his hand in arc, catching the laser rifle in the swing and severing it's energy connection, and quickly pulled out his 10mm pistol and pointed it at his assailant's head. His attacker was a ghoul, wearing what looked like some sort of robe, with a hood covering his head. the ghoul looked scared to hell, mainly because he had never seen anyone react as fast as Connor. With a slight stutter, the ghoul finally pulled up enough courage and spoke in his raspy, ghoul voice

"Whoa there, take it easy I didn't mean to try and kill you" the ghoul trying to not get himself killed. "Then what why don't you tell me what you were doing with that laser rifle, and with a disintegrated body" Connor was obviously not happy, first he had was ordered to exit the vault on a suicide mission, then raiders tried to kill him in his sleep, then this ghoul was pointing a laser rifle at the back of his head "it was self defense, I swear" but Connor was still unconvinced, he pulled the hammer down to arm the gun, threatening to kill the ghoul, before demanding "who are you? What are you doing here? Where did you come from?" the ghoul looked like he was sweating lead " I'm with the Bright brotherhood, we came all the way from Nevada to the Far Beyond"


	3. Screams

**Hello people so for those of you who do care, I will be running on a new name, which is MrMarcz, thank you if you even bothered reading this part, and I do hope you will enjoy the next chapter**

* * *

"You're from Nevada, but how?" Connor asked with a truly confused look

"We took rockets from the Repconn test site, 3 rockets were launched, but only 2 made it here, the 3rd rocket suffered from multiple engine malfunctions, and crashed somewhere near Mt. Charleston, according to Jason, if the rockets were to fail, we were to return to the test site, this was 6 years ago"

"Hm, rockets huh?" Connor was still suspicious over the frightened ghoul in front of him, but still, things made a little more sense "bring me to Jason, he seems to know more about this place" Connor demanded

"Ok, in one condition though" the ghoul said, still trembling in fear

"And what is that?" Connor asked no longer remembering how this even conversation started

"Stop pointing that gun at my face, please?" the ghoul was looking at him with a concerned, yet hopeful face, probably because he could get shot right in the face, but his hopefulness was not in vain, since Connor eventually did point his gun away

"Fine, let's get going, we are running out of daylight. And I do hope you know how to use this" Connor abruptly said as he passed the 10mm pistol to the ghoul "and if we're going to be traveling together, I do recommend you tell me your name" Connor asked as he walked ahead

"Jeremiah, my name's Jeremiah" the ghoul, said as he started to follow Connor "we go to the abandone tools factory on downtown Anchorage"

"Lead the way" Connor said as he started slowing down, and walked down south, towards downtown

* * *

It's been 2 hours since their confrontation; both Connor and Jeremiah were silent the entire way. It was getting dark, they both knew they had to make camp soon, they found an old fire station, and decided it was the right place to sleep. as Connor was opening a can of non irradiated Pork n Beans, he remembered that he wasn't alone, and offered some to Jeremiah

"No thanks, not hungry" Jeremiah stated, in his dry and raspy voice

"What you're not hungry?" Connor asked, sure even ghouls get hungry, right?

"Yes, I'm not hungry" Jeremiah replied, in a simple line. Connor just shrugged it of and ate the rest of the Pork n Beans quietly. After he was done eating his food, he called for first watch, but then Jeremiah turned it down as fast as Connor had pulled it up

"Ok you know what, what's the problem, really?" Connor demanded Jeremiah answer "You turn down good food, and an early nights sleep, if this is about the fact that i was pointing a gun at your face for 10 minutes, I'm sorry, ok?"

"It's not that" Jeremiah stated "i don't sleep, i don't eat, hell, i don't think i'm breathing anymore"

"Fine by me" Connor said as he proceeded to go to sleep

* * *

"Wake up god damn it!" a raspy voice called out

"Huh, what, who" a very sleepy Connor answered

"We have to go!" Connor finally recognised the voice as Jeremiah

"What, it's barely even 5 am!" Connor complained

"I don't think that super mutant cares" at the word 'Super mutant' Connor immediately woke up and grabbed Grim and the assault rifle he took from the museum "i'll grab the stuff, you set up camp on the 2nd storey window" Jeremiah scurried and picked up all the supplies and armed his Laser rifle

"I thought i broke that?" Connor asked while he was loading his rifle

"i lived for 236 years, i know this rifle inside and out, fixed it while you were sleeping" as he loaded the rifle with a microfusion cell

as Connor ran up the stairs he literally threw himself into the floor and worm wiggled his way to the window. As he peered through the window, he saw the beast, a green hulking creature, with it's bloodshot eyes, running strait through a rusted school bus in the middle of the street, holding on to street lamp with it's two hulking hands, and slammed through the fire station's wall and sending Jeremiah flying 3 feet away, into a conveniently placed couch. Connor made a dash for the stair well, and as he spotted the hulking beast he opened fire, literally emptying his clip a matter of seconds, as he was reloading his rifle the super mutant swung it's street light, which ripped through the ceiling, nearly sweeping Connor with it. Connor dropped immediately and rolled next to the wall right as the Super Mutant's street light ruptured the ceiling again, causing half of the 2nd floor to crumble and fall to the 1st. as the super mutant was staggered by it's own idiocy, Connor regained his balance and emptied his clip at the beast. a dozen little holes were around the super mutants torso and head, crippling it's perception. Connor backed away from the super mutant as it regained it's conscience, the super mutant charged through the rubble right at him, and just as all seems lost, a red beam of heat cut it's way through and gave the super mutant a severe 5th degree burn on the left side of it's head, another beam cut through, burning a hole on the super mutants stomach, and a final shot was made, which disintegrated the super mutant to crisp.

"took your sweet ass time" Connor said as he tried to get up, but to no avail, as his left leg was crippled "Ah, shit"

"Whoa, take it easy there cowboy" Jeremiah said, "Must've broke your leg during that fall" Jeremiah extended his arm, and Connor grabbed it and pulled himself up, using his rifle as a crutch "I know someone who can patch you up, real nice person she is, unless you're pointing a gun at her, then you'd be having a couple hundred new bullet holes around you, she's got some feisty sentry bots stationed at her shop" Jeremiah said as he reloaded his Laser rifle, and slung it around his back "we should be able to get there by midday"

"lead the way" Connor promptly said as he followed Jeremiah going east

* * *

a bell made it's signature 'Ding' sound as the door to the shop opened

"come in, and holster your weapon, if you pull it up these robots here will turn you to swiss cheese, literally"

"It's just me Caroline, and this guy right here, you got any stimpaks could use?" Jeremiah said as he waved his hand

"yeah, for 5 caps i do" she said as she smirked

"really, last time it was only 2" Jeremiah complained

"yeah, last time i wasn't running out of supplies" she said as she pulled out a stimpak from under the counter

"Fine, here you go" Jeremiah threw a little pouch that jingled when it collided near the cashier. he put Connor down on a couch on the other side of the room, and took the stimpak from the counter, and as he walked over to Connor and handed to him, he told him "you might want to jab this on own leg your yourself" and went back to Caroline

"Where'd you find this guy" Caroline asked as she pulled out a box of microfusion cells

"in the national park, he broke my rifle, then tried to kill me, but were cool" Jeremiah had a smug look on his face

"Yeah makes so much..." Caroline's sentence was cut off as she and Jeremiah heard Connor scream from the other side of the room

"You okay?" Jeremiah asked from the counter

"Yep, much better" Connor answered, with a touch of pain in his voice

"alrighty then, where were we?"

"Never mind, just make sure he doesn't bleed all over the couch, i just cleaned it up yesterday" Caroline said as she took a tablecloth and passed it to Jeremiah

"i'll go check up on him" Jeremiah said as he walked over to Connor "You okay" Jeremiah asked Connor, who surprisingly still had the stimpak on his left thigh "I'll take that as a no. c'mon, i'll help you get it out"

meanwhile, in the other side of the room, Caroline was stacking up the caps she made that day, there wasn't a lot of customers recently. and as she was counting the 12th stack, she literally jumped to the sound of Connor screaming, again, and just as she was about to draw her shotgun, she overheard Connor and Jeremiah arguing

"Sweet Baby Jesus, you said on the count of 3!"

"Did i?" was Jeremiah's only response

"Abso-Fucking-Lutley"

"Well i thought distracting you and pulling the stimpak without you realizing would make it feel painless"

"Well it fucking didn't"

"Shut the fuck up won't you two" Caroline shouted from the other side of the room "You're free to stay here for the night, just, no more arguing, capische?"

"Ok fine" Connor responded

* * *

"This couch feels, dangerous" Connor asked Caroline

"well, it's over 200 years old, it would probably break anytime, but would you rather sleep on the cold, hard, floor"

"Fine" Connor said as he started to go to sleep

Caroline slept at the mattress near the counter, she turned off the lights and tucked her shotgun by her side, and as she drifted to sleep, she was disturbed by the most unfortunate sound of the couch breaking, and Connor screaming with a rather comical 'Aaaaaaaaaaahh' before releasing one thing

"It's going to be a long night"

* * *

**So that was the 2nd chapter ladies and gentlemen, i hope you enjoyed it, **

**so please take note that specific types of reviews may change the main course of the story, good day, or good night, and i will see you in the _FUTURE_**


	4. the Alamo

**Hello again this is MrMarcz with another chapter of The Chill, i do hope you like this story, if so, please tell me what you might want to happen in the story,or you just wan't to give me advice, a little critic won't hurt, PM me, or post a review, and I'll see what i can do.**

**now, for the next chapter of The Chill**

* * *

"Jesus Fucking Christ, that was literally the worst sleep I've ever had in years" Connor stated while he was getting up, rubbing his back, and trying to regain his composure

"I've been worse, I guarantee it" Jeremiah claimed while he was polishing his laser rifle, before loading it, and with a mechanical whine the rifle came to life as it's beam diode started glowing

"oh really, that's pretty hard to believe?" Connor asked in curiosity, stretching all whilst he asked, with the occasional crack of his bones filling the room with noise

"I've been on this wasteland for over 200 years now, you'd be surprised what could happened to me in that time"

they both were too busy having they're chat, all the way that they did not realize Caroline walking up to them

"Well you boys seem to be having fun" Caroline clearly flooding with sarcasm

"What do you want?" Connor was a little bit irritated by her sarcasm, and the fact that she just cut his conversation with Jeremiah

"What? i give you a place to sleep, and you repay me like this? I'm hurt" still sarcastic in the tone of her speech

"Fine, whatever. you cut us off for a reason, so let's cut the crap and hear it" Connor started talking, with his signature stoic expression in his face

"Perceptive, that will come in handy on the task i'm giving you two" Caroline now pulled up a serious face "i want you to go scavenging for items that i could sell, point enough?"

"Whoa, whoa, hold up a second, what?" Jeremiah clearly in a confused state

"You heard me, you scavenge stuff that i can sell, easy enough?" Caroline was waiting for a response

"Ok, fine, but your supplies, may cost us our lives, what's in it for us?" Connor asked, clearly not liking the current deal

"Fine, 20% of whatever i make out of it, deal?"

"Make it 40" Jeremiah clearly seeing a chance to make money out of this

"Ooh, cant do that, how about 30" Caroline was offended when Jeremiah requested for 40 percent of the share

"35, take it or leave it" Connor makes his last remark as he slung his bag on his back and armed his rifle

"Fine, 35% of whatever money i make out of this" Caroline surrendered the negotiation

"We'll get going then" Jeremiah said as he slung his rifle across his back and turned to open the door

"Oh, right, and one more thing" Connor remembering something important

"Hm, what?" Caroline looked back at the two travelers

"You know any place of sorts where i could find some sort of heater system, for, say i don't know, a vault?"

"uhh, i actually don't know, you might want to check the old RobCo factory down south"

"Alright, thanks anyways"

* * *

"You're from a vault?" Jeremiah abruptly asked

"Yeah, why?" Connor looked over to his companion

"Well, then where's your PipBoy thingy?"

"I entered the vault when i was 13, according to the overseer, only people who enter the vault at the age of 10 or younger get's a PipBoy"

"Really, i find that surprising" Jeremiah stated "See, because, i too was from a vault, in Arizona"

"Surprising" Connor was interested in the statement made by Jeremiah

"Yip, Vault 10 over at Arizona, also had a friend, real crazy he was, thought he was like me, but he wasn't"

"friend?" Connor looked over to Jeremiah

"Yip, he was an engineer in Vault 34, never liked guns, unlike the rest there, worked in the reactor, then there was a leak, accidentally locked up in the reactor when it happened. well, thought he turned into a handsome motherfucker like me, and surprisingly, Chris didn't turn, but hell he believed he was, he left, met and begged to join me, so we went, met up with Jason and his boys, and the rest's history"

"Then why aren't you wearing a PipBoy?"

"They cut off my left hand that day" Jeremiah said as he showed off his synthetic left arm, something Connor somehow failed to see

"wow" was all Connor could say

"And you thought your life was shitty, you ain't seen nothing yet kid"

* * *

"Holy fucking hell, that is huge" Connor simply stated

"it's titanic" Jeremiah simply staring in shock

"How the fuck are we supposed to find a fucking heater system in this fucking mess?" Connor said in his state of confusion

"We should start searching right away"

* * *

"God fucking dammit, it's been 4 hours and no luck" Connor stated in his frustration

"Hey, i think i found something" Jeremiah cried from the other side of the room

"What is it" Connor asked, with a slight glimmer of hope

"It says here, that..."

"That what?" Connor asked in enthusiasm

"...That the last heater system in this entire facility was shipped, to a private fallout shelter somewhere out side of town"

"Damn" Connor was obviously angry "does it say where the vault is?"

"even better, the heater system never made it to the vault, bombs fell first"

"that's great news, where was the truck's last known location"

"it's just out of town, somewhere near the Rockwell Technology Institute"

"What?" Connor felt oblivious to the word

"It's an old military research site, c'mon, we got a long walk a head of us"

* * *

it was getting dark, and here in The Chill, you don't want to be on the outside when it get's dark, it can freeze all the way down to 50 below zero. but of course, fortunately, the two wanderers had reached their destination before dark, the Rockwell Technology Institute, once the center of military research, and sole rival of RobCo industries, now only an empty husk, filled with technologies, waiting to be discovered, think of it like the Think Tank, but in a mountain of ice

As the two entered, the immediately set up camp, the winter was too hard, even in April. as Connor was cooking up another can of Pork n Beans, Jeremiah decided to make watch from the lobby window, and what he found was, unnerving. he ran all the way back to the guests section, where Connor was and warned him

"Hey, hey, hey, don't mean to bother your dinner here, but there are a few dozen guys out there, and they don't look too friendly"

"What?" Connor practically spitting his food back "a few, how much?"

"3, maybe 4, or 5" Jeremiah still had his worried look

"5 dozen men? you fucking with me?" Connor was now in terror, he quickly armed his assault rifle, and loaded the hunting rifle that the overseer gave him "c'mon, we should fall in deeper into the atrium, we fortify there, and that's going to be our last stand"

"Agreed, let's go" Jeremiah practically throwing himself towards atrium doors, tearing the door into splinters, as he took position behind a prototype solar car display, whilst Connor took cover behind a monument, dedicated for the veterans of the Alaskan front lines.

"We hold this line, if we start getting overwhelmed we fall to the room behind us" Connor taking his position, disabling the safe on his rifle, he took a deep breath "God help us"

* * *

**Yip, so that's it ladies and gentlemen, i do hope you like it, leave a review if you like it, critics if you must, but i prefer calling them advices, so good evening, or good morning, and i will see you in the FUTURE**


	5. a broken man and an ancient soldier

**Hello everyone, i'm back with another chapter of, The Chill, so as usual leave a review if you like it, maybe a critic, or advice**

**and if anyone did notice, i had to remove the chapter: The Alamo for a couple of revisions, but it's back up now, sorry if i made any inconvenience**

**anyways, now back to The Chill  
**

* * *

"Here they come!" Jeremiah promptly shouted "3rd wave bitches! eat shit!" Jeremiah continuously firing lasers at the direction of the enemy, who are bearing down at them like a bear, hungry for salmon

lead and laser whizzed through the air as each side relentlessly bombarded each other, Connor, who had already changed his cover 8 times already was now running out of ammo for his assault rifle, shot his final burst of 5.56 mm, before literally chucking his rifle at one of the opposing forces, followed by a rather satisfying sound of wet crunch. Connor grabbed his hunting rifle, took a deep breath, pulled the trigger, and bam, another head exploded, splattering brain all over the floor. as the last man on the wave fell onto the floor, Connor saw something that will save his life. the Rockwell Recharger Rifle, like the recharger rifle, but with a more powerful blast, it shoots purple energy that literally leaves a gaping hole in literally anything

he made a run for it, just as another wave of men charged in, lead and laser lying through the room, Jeremiah had dropped 3 men in the first 4 seconds, Connor grabbed the rifle and made a dash to the counter that was only a few feet away from Jeremiah's car

"You got some hyperbreeder cells there?" Connor was struggling to keep his head intact, when one of the thugs brought a minigun, and is turning everything into Swiss cheese

"Yeah, why?" Jeremiah was stressed enough with his current problem

"just give it to me!" and with that another burst of 5mm bullets whizzed threw the room, continuing it's spree of destruction. Jeremiah slid the Hyperbreeder cells to Connor, who immediately loaded the rifle, it gave off a ding, and a mechanical whine, and Connor held his breath, pointed his gun at the grunt with the minigun, and before the grunt could scream, he was turned into a pile of goo, giving off slight purple glow

"Sweet baby Jesus" was all Jeremiah could say. but that didn't last long, as another wave of thugs came guns blazing, this time with grenade machine guns and laser gatlings

"Run, to the storage warehouse, go! I'll hold them off" Connor cried as he shot another 3 round in quick succession, downing another 2

"You can't take them all at once, you're going to get yourself killed!" Jeremiah stated, as he took a new position by a prototype safe display

"You've been shot trice already, go!" Connor shouted as he shot another grunt with the laser Gatling down

"Fine!" Jeremiah ran to a metal door, pressed the open button, and slipped inside, Connor proceeded to do the same, and pressed the emergency lock button, meaning that it can only be opened by Jeremiah and Connor, not the thugs outside "Alright, we'll be safe in here, for now"

"Yeah, maybe we'll die of starvation, we'll maybe not me" Jeremiah said as he loaded his laser rifle

"keep your optimism to yourself if your trying to gain morale" Connor once again had that, stoic 'i will fucking kill you' look on his face, which immediately made Jeremiah shut up "search for things that can help us make it through, robots, guns anything, i swear i saw on of the thugs there holding onto a fat-man"

as Connor started scavenging in the robots section, he managed to power up a handful Robo-Brains, and a few sentry-bots, and as he was looking for more robots he could activate, he found something like never before. It looks like Liberty Prime, but it was the size of a man, and there were no bombs behind him, and it looked like it's outer shell was wearing Combat armor. Connor saw a clipboard, and as he wiped away the dust, he saw a writing on the board which read:

Project Report:

Sentinel Freedom infantry android, introduced, built and designed by Dr. Drake Eisenhower, was to be a state of the art, frontline android capable of resisting a direct hit from a tank, pick it self up, and still fight, although RobCo introduced Liberty Prime first, neither one of the machines were ever used in the frontlines. The Sentinel Freedom, was the most advanced machine capable of following even the most complicated of orders, understand military codes, decrypt level 10 cyphers, and it has an operating system that can translate from Morse codes, to gibberish. advanced hologram systems allows the unit to disguise itself as literally anyone and has the ability two generate it's own alias complete with background checks and a fake personality, advanced AI allows it to detect a cloaked infiltrator, and spot 1 spy in the middle of 1000 people.

Price per unit 1000 dollars

military council approval was 17 out of 20

10,000 Sentinel Freedom infantry android units was ordered, 243 has been completed another 542 will be done by the end of 2078, automated factory systems will continue to produce units even without human maintenance, General-atomics Robo-brain units will maintain machinery and replace broken equipment

Signed: George Martin Rockwell

"maybe i can activate this one" Connor promptly threw the clip board away "Now there should be an on button here somewhere" as Connor looked around for an on button, he saw a red lever, with yellow stripes, which literally looked like it was saying 'pull me! pull me!' which Connor promptly did, with whir, and buzz, some lights flickered to life inside the robot's airtight chamber, a bold writing flashed in a terminal monitor which read 'Unit energy charge: 0%' some sort of timer beside it started ticking, with an electric clock on top of it displaying '10 minutes until Unit power up complete'

just as the charge was 2% complete, a large explosion blasted the Storage warehouse's doors open, and not long after, gunshots, missile fire, laser beams started, tearing through the building. Connor made a dash for the door, arming his new Recharger Rifle, he jumped onto a crate, and made another jump, and now he was on top of the pile of crates and shelves. as he crawled his way to the battle zone, he could see Robo-brains and Sentry-bots firing away at the thugs, each side ripping each other apart, but then, something unexpected happened, one of the thugs, or should Connor call them mercenaries, was wearing power armor, t51 b, winterized model. how he was wearing it didn't matter, he was carrying a shoulder mounted machine gun, which shot 10mm, instead of 5mm, which meant, that it was ripping through the robots at much higher fire power. Connor took out a belt, which he had plasma grenade he found while he was scavenging strapped all over. he set the timer to 8 seconds, activated the magnetic straps, and threw it at the power armored foe, as the belt latched itself at the metallic power armor, the mercenary was desperately trying to get it off him, but the timer started beeping rapidly, and before he knew it, his entire torso had been blown up, and what was left of the mercenary sent flying all over the place yards away, blood and guts spilling out of the parts that was sent airborne, the powered armor foe was nothing left but mush and guts.

The rest of the mercenaries, roughly 3 dozen of them, almost half of them was wearing power armor, wielding miniguns, laser gatlings, red glares, you name a heavy weapon used by the pre-war military, high chances are, they have it

Jeremiah was cowering in his cover, too afraid of even sticking a single finger out, was literally trembling to his bones, he lie in waiting for his end, all the robots that were activated were destroyed, his teeth was chattering, laser rifle in hand, he thought of one last stand, but before he even finished the thought, he heard a sound, playing some sort of marching song, but then Jeremiah remembered what it was "That is a song i haven't heard in a long time" it's true, what Jeremiah whispered to himself, that very song, was the star spangled banner. as the instrumental got closer and closer, both Jeremiah and Connor discovered where it came from, the Sentinel Freedom Connor was powering up. the robot marched straight into the middle of the fire fight, instrumental still blaring from it's speakers, it gave of a rather motivating cry

"_Courage today, Victory tomorrow!_" the Robot said as it pointed it's Energy Carbine and started blasting the mercenaries with it's yellow energy projectiles, tearing through power armor as if it was only cloth, body after body fell to the Robot's energy Carbine, nothing was effecting it, rocket after rocket, grenade after grenade, bullet after bullet, nothing even made a scratch on the Robot, sure the rocket may have knocked it a little bit, like when someone was giving a hearty pat on the back, but literally nothing was making something as small as a scratch.

The mercenaries was starting to rout, but the machine gave no mercy. it cut down the fleeing mercenaries one by one, decapitating them with bursts of yellow energy, one by one, the mercenaries died, none of them were spared. after the robot was done, it marched back to Connor, giving him salute

"_Reporting for duty, Sir!_" the robot promptly stated

"Uh, good morning?" Connor was afraid it might detect him as a threat

"_Good morning, Sir!_" the robot said with it's military voice

"What's your name soldier" Connor feeling a little more confident, realizing how he could work things out with the robot

it took a few seconds before the robot replied "_Corporal Kincaid Gorobets, Sir!_" the machine stated, as if it was his own name

"Corporal Gorobets, I am Colonel Connor Franks, this is Second lieutenant Jeremiah, you have been assigned to serve under our command" Connor barked at the robot

"_Sir! yes Sir!_" the robot responded

"Let's get going soldier"

"_Yes Sir!_"

not long after, Jeremiah remembered something and started looting and scavenging the dead Mercenaries for spare parts and scrap metal

"What are you doing?" Connor asked

"Hey, we still have that deal with Caroline remember?" Jeremiah said as he continued looting the dead men and robots

"Right, but how are we going to carry all of these?" Connor asked as he started looting some of the other men

"Easy, one of the guy's power armor was pretty roughed up, but i can jury rig it with enough parts to semi working order again" Jeremiah said as he started welding some parts on to the power armor with a blow torch he somehow kept hidden from Connor, hammered it with a hammer he found lying about, inserted some MF cells, and with a whirr, the power armor was in pretty bad, but operable condition

"Okay that's that, but who's operating that, neither of us has power armor training" Connor said

"Now that's where your wrong, see, remember when i said i have 236 years of experience, i served in the Yangtze campaign, power armor training was mandatory for all service men, navy, air force or army" Jeremiah said back as he started putting on the banged up power armor, and finally slid on the power helmet "now, where were we?"

* * *

the trio searched a nearby pickup truck for the Heater systems, but alas, it was partially damaged, time had taken it's toll, most of the parts were rusted, dented, or frozen stiff, the circuit board was snapped in half, there was no way this thing is going to save his vault

"Fuck, fucktity fuck, fuck" Connor cursed at himself

"Hey, hey, it's not your fault, we should take it to Caroline, see if she can patch it up, and besides, we also need to deliver all this crap to her" Jeremiah said through the power armor's rebreather as he pointed at the scrap metal and salvaged parts from the mercenaries' power armor and broken weapons in the sack he slung behind him, the rest of the loot was being carried by Gorobets, the robot soldier

"alright, let's go" Connor said as he grabbed his back pack and started off east, back into town "one thing though"

"Huh?" Jeremiah mused

"What was your rank, back then" Connor asked

Jeremiah gave a sigh, before answering "i was an admiral in the navy, youngest and brightest"

"Why'd you leave?" Connor asked again

"the Chinese sent an joint counter attack, Naval, Marine and Aerial, we were out numbered literally 14 to 1, pushed us back to Okinawa naval base in japan, lost hundreds of good of men, thousands more went missing, i had literally over 80 of the finest warships with me, and hundreds more frigates, dreadnaughts, cruisers and to think the Chinese had that much boys on their side gave me shivers until now. had a mental breakdown, got moved to mental hospital in LA, when i got better, i took a tour of a vault in Arizona, thought it would be nice for my family, signed up, 4 days later, the sirens rang, and we rushed to the vault, 20 years later, the all clear was made, and we exit the vault, left for Nevada, family got killed by raiders, got ghoulified when i accidentally fell into a nuclear crater somewhere in a mountain in Nevada" Jeremiah looked to the east, presumably towards china

"oh sorry, i didn't know" Connor looked sorry for asking the question

"It's not your fault, as you said you didn't know. besides, i needed to get that off my chest" Jeremiah looked at at Connor smiled from behind his power armor "Let's get going, we're killing daylight"

* * *

**So that was that ladies and gentlemen, i hope you liked it, leave a review, a critic, or an advice on how i can improve my writing, whatever you want, thank you for reading, and i'll see you in the FUTURE!  
**


	6. A link to the past

**Hello it's MrMarcz, with another Chapter of, The Chill, leave a review if you liked it, an advice, or a critic. and if you would like, i could add some suggestions into the storyline, as i already have a view on how it will end, i was wondering how prolong this story**

**anyways, thank you, and now, The Chill  
**

* * *

"Whoa, this is a lot of stuff" Caroline said in amazement

"It's what we found, oh, and one other thing" Connor said as he pulled out the broken heater system out of his backpack "It's a heater system, for a vault, can you fix it?"

"Maybe, Possibly, i could, no i can't, hold up" Caroline said as she pulled out a magnifying glass from her pocket "Yes, yes i can fix it"

"That's great, how long will it take?" Connor said, hope fully he wouldn't have to spend anymore time in the surface

"2, may be 3 weeks, longer if the motherboard is worse than it looks, your lucky that the main ion compressor is in good shape" Caroline explained as she pointed out the torn up motherboard "I could fix it, yes, but it will take some time" Caroline said as she moved the heater system off the counter and placed it in a room behind her

"Looks like this is where it ends" Jeremiah said as he walked up to Connor

"Hm, maybe" Connor said as he made his way to the broken couch and took a seat, before drifting into deep, deep thought

"What's plaguing your head?" Jeremiah said as he took a seat beside Connor

"The guys who ambushed us, those weren't normal thugs, you know" Connor said as he rummaged his backpack for something

"Um, that does seem a bit obvious isn't it?" Jeremiah said as he took a bottle of Nuka-Cola from his knapsack, opened it, and started drinking

"they were organized, carrying military grade equipment, wouldn't be surprised if something like that happened again" Connor said as he continued to search the backpack

"hell, i never thought I'd see another one of those Red Glares, it's been, 16 years, or was it 18, i don't know since i last saw a guy with that thing"

"Where did you see it last?" Connor said as he somehow effortlessly looked for whatever he was looking for in his backpack

"Busted place called Hopeville, a place somewhere near New Vegas, only way in was from a highway wreckage near this town they call Primm" Jeremiah explained as he took another sip from his Nuka-Cola

"Found it!" Connor said as he out a device from his bag

"is that what i think it is?" Jeremiah asked in a genuinely interested face he was taking the last sip from the bottle

"Yip, it'll tell us where those guys got the gear to make an assault"

"Where the fuck did you get a military grade security tracker?" Jeremiah asked rather harshly

"Someone gave it to me when i was 8" Connor answered Jeremiah's question as he walked up to Caroline who was examining the heater system "You got a terminal somewhere here?"

"Um, it's in the left corner near the scrap section" Caroline said, not even paying attention to whoever asked her that

"thanks" Connor took the Security tracker and plugged it in one of the flash drive ports on the side of the terminal

"Who the fuck gave that thing to you?" Jeremiah asked, rather angrily

"Let's just say he was in uniform" Connor not feeling like answering Jeremiah at the moment

"He's was Enclave wasn't he?" Jeremiah's expression was somehow drained when Connor said 'uniform'

"maybe, i couldn't tell, he was covered with blood and snow, all i could say is that it was grey" Connor said as he started scrolling down the list of military bases, and who authorized them

"An officer, makes sense, only they were given access to those files" Jeremiah said as he sat down in a chair near Connor "Where did you meet him, i find it hard to believe that the Enclave is this far north"

"In Canada, somewhere between the Yukon/Alaska border"

"oh god, the Enclave, this far north, those roaches are living up to their goals aren't they?" Jeremiah was somehow depressed at the news of the Enclave's presence, despite being service member of the US navy

"you were Admiral, why didn't they enlist you in the Enclave?"

"Enclave was terrible, witnessed it myself when Morrison revealed what the Enclave would do, even before the bombs" Jeremiah said as he looked into his dry, bony, arms

"Morrison?" Connor said as he diverted his attention from the terminal to Jeremiah

"Herbert J. Morrison, last and worst president of the United States, he, and when i mean 'he' i mean 'he and no one else', started the bloodiest conflict ever witnessed by mankind" Jeremiah, basically spat at the name "He clung to the oil reserves here like a leech on a wound, sucking it dry, never sharing a single bit. he would provoke the Chairman Cheng every once in a while, eventually led the poor chinaman to invade this place, not for the oil, but to cut down Morrison's ego, they were running on solar power quite effectively, trust me when i say they covered nearly half of Gobi with solar panels, shit powered more than half of china, the Gobi campaign wasn't an attempt to stop china from harming America, it was Morrison's ego crying for fucking reprisal, to cut down China's power, like they cut down Morrison's pride"

"My God" Connor said, somehow feeling ashamed, for a reason he will not say

"His ego didn't have enough disgustingly, he demanded we take down the Three Gorges Dam, and thus me and my navy, with the marines and the army were sent into the Yangtze campaign, in an attempt to destroy China's only hope of surviving a complete loss of their oil. heck, if Morrison wasn't too busy rubbing his ass and poking on Cheng, we might not be living in this hell hole of a place"

"So this entire war, was just because of some assholes ego?" Connor has had his fair share of assholes, but to think he was living in an irradiated, winter wasteland hell-hole, all because some guy didn't get enough hugs from mommy was disgusting, it literally made Connor rethink about calling a man from his past an asshole, this Morrison guy had redefined the word 'asshole' for all eternity

"that wasn't all, he decided that America was to stay super power for all eternity, that much i agree, but when he said, and i quote 'nothing shall stand in the way of ME and MY plans of rebuilding MY country' i just had about enough of it" Jeremiah spat on the floor "He was the one who decided that the Enclave was to purge and rebuild, instead of protect and restart"

"So you were apart of the Enclave" Connor said as he put the pieces together

"That i was, but not all of the Enclave was bad you know. there was this guy, sort of reminds me of you, real nice, God knows why he stood with along with Morrison's plan, Andrew Franks or something" Jeremiah said as he pulled out a picture of him and Andrew Franks together, only a two days before the great war "Hey, your family name's Franks right?" Jeremiah asked "You wouldn't happen to be related?"

"Um, i... never heard of the name, must be... a coincidence" Connor said, for some reason, with a hint of guilt, remorse, fear.

"okay, just chasing loose ends, that's all" Jeremiah said, a little disappointed "Anyways, I'm going to take a nap, refresh a bit, clear my head with a little bit of beer maybe"

"Yeah, you do that" Connor said as he watched Jeremiah go to the other side of the room, the part with the couch

when Jeremiah was outside of earshot, Connor gave off a heavy sigh of relief , and continued his search through the military logs. as he looked at the list of officers who authorized openings of military warehouses, one name caught his attention in anger and hatred, he said to himself

"Mathias"


End file.
